THERE WAS 1 TABLESPOON ADDED AT THIS POINT,I WANTED TO BOOST UP THE PH IN THE PRIMARY THEN PLAY OFF OF IT LATER IN THE SECONDARY IF NEEDED.(NOT SHOUTING JUST USING LARGER LETTERS).
LORI,THAT IS A BOTTLE OF CARAMEL EXTRACT WHICH I MAY OR MAYNOT USE IN THE CARAMEL PORT , THE PORT WILL DEFINE WHAT DIRRECTION I WANT TO TAKE IT OR IT WANTS TO TAKE ME. THEN I'll ADJUST TEXTURE AND TASTE TO BALANCE.
Still dont have my tannin. Have a friend coming up from maine over your thanksgiving weekend and he will bring me some supplies. Just have to decide on what to get.
What a thread you all started, education is a wonderful gift!
This tread is amazing, since I'm new to this forum I started reading at page one which is several years ago. I made it to page five then fast forwarded to the last page..... and BANG I'm at today, this is like a time capsule of wine making knowledge. I also noticed Joe has progressed to a camera as a picture is worth a thousand word description. LOL
I must say Joe, you are very impressive within the art / chemistry of wine making you are doing things that I've been somewhat reluctant to try.
I enjoy the wine making process and making things from what nature provides to us. I find myself afraid to add juices and flavors (aka, sauces) my biggest worry is causing the fermentation process to restart after adding the sugar base and ruining the entire batch.
Here is our kit that we received from Wineexpert. This kit is a Wineexpert Selection Series Amarone. This kit has the following included. (This list is a little different from the usual kit that you receive. This is a top of the line kit.)
The box includes the following:
Large bag of juice
Grape skin pack (You can actually see that there are grape skins in it!)
2 packs of Lavin RC-212
2 Chaptalisation Packs (bags of sugar)
Package #2 (bentonite)
Package #3 (Metabisulphite)
Package #4 (Sorbate)
Package #5 (Chitosan-(Fining Agent)
Mesh Straining Bag
3 Packages of European Hungarian Oak
Just for reference, I’m sure everyone knows by now if they have been following the posts, that you will need certain equipment to make this kit. For the newbies, I’m going to put it below so you know what you need:
Primary Fermenter (minimum 30 Litres/7.9 US gallons capacity)
Long stirring spoon (Plastic or stainless steel)
Measuring cup
Hydrometer and test jar
Thermometer
Wine thief
Siphon rod and hose
Carboy (6 US gallon capacity)
Bung and Air lock
Solid Bung (if you are bulk aging)
Unscented winemaking detergent for cleaning (we recommend Onestep or any other oxygenating cleaner, including Kmet....JUST NOT BLEACH!)
Metabisulphite Powder for sanitizing
30 wine bottles, thirty corks , thirty seals
Corking machine (there are various types, we use an italian floor corker.)
The Process:
As always, sanitize anything that comes in contact with the wine. Including yourself. J
Add half gallon of warm water to the primary fermenting bucket with the bentonite packet and stir until dissolved.
Add the large juice package. (Be careful, it’s heavy!) Rinse this out with a little bit of spring water to make sure you get it all.
Next, we added the smaller “grape skin packet”. It’s lumpy so you also want to rinse the bag out w/ water also, to get all the grape skins.
Now, we take the SG reading. We’re at 1.10.
Next, we added the smaller “grape skin packet”. It’s lumpy so you also want to rinse the bag out w/ water also, to get all the grape skins.
Now, here comes all that Hungarian oak! We are adding 3 packets of Hungarian powdered oak (wow!).
Here comes the fun part. YEAST! 2 packets of RC-212 yeast. Cover with a towel and wait 5-7 days, gently punching down the grape skins.
Secondary Fermentation: Now that we fermented dry (SG reading is 1.010), now it’s time to rack it. Notice the grape skins on top? This is the cap that formed from the grape skin packet that was provided in the Wineexpert Amarone Kit, along with the addition of California Raisins (that I added to add more body). We racked this down to a carboy but it is pretty gassy. I’m going to let this settle out for a few days and degas some on its own. Over the weekend, I will force-gas it (If I have to) by giving it a good old-fashioned stir. Once I feel that it’s de-gassed enough, I will stabilize it with the potassium sorbate packet, K-Met Packet, and packet of Chitosan (clearing agent).
UPDATE:
We finished bottling our super-awesome, Winexpert Selection International Amarone Kit. We are quite happy with the results. Our end result is a dark, inky-color, rich, full bodied, wine. It has a spicy-earthy, sour cherry aroma, dried fruit, bitter almond, from the huge volume of tannins.
For a kit wine that started just 2 1/2 months ago, the results are quite impressive. (We started this kit on August 22, 2013. We bottled tonight, 10/24/2013. After doing this kit, we would def. recommend this one for any true Italian red-wine drinker.
We would like to thank Winexpert for giving us the opportunity to present one of their finest wine kits they have available. We would definitely recommend this kit to the novice and experienced winemakers alike as it truly is exceptional.
We are looking forward to our next tutorial now that this one is complete. Please give us feedback and recommendations of what type of wine you would like to learn how to make.
Thank you for a wonderful experience and passing of great knowledge. We're drinking it already. I don't think this wine will make it through the holidays......
Yes there were, I believe we put 2 tablespoons in the secondary, also I proceeded to put one more to make it according to my taste in my taste profile this thing gave it a more earthy taste. Once this wine is aged a little more it will be outstanding like RC goodin and stated, he might not have none left by Christmas tasty this is these tying kits are expensive but there will worth the money the Vigo concentrate to varietals overwhelming concentrate side the balance of the parental and grape oak along with the tannins makes a measurable difference in the overall performance of kit and its response to time, definitely a winner.